While corporations face increasing pressure to be more profitable, governments around the world are looking to raise revenue

While corporations face increasing pressure to be more profitable and move risk, functions and assets to different locations around the world in order to gain tax efficiencies and be more competitive, tax administrations are looking to raise revenues. As a result, governments around the world are becoming more aggressive with respect to tax avoidance, risk assessments and auditing. International norms of tax behaviours are beginning to be challenged.

In this panel discussion at the PwC / Tax Executives Institutes International Tax Day opening plenary session on November 21, 2012, John Preston, PwC’s global Tax Policy leader, David Swenson, PwC’s global leader of Tax Controversy and Dispute Resolution (TCDR) and Marc Vanasse, leader of PwC Canada’s TCDR team discuss global tax controversy and tax policies. Tax administrators such as the IRS and the CRA are changing the way they conduct risk assessments and are using a more complex set of factors to determine which organizations should be audited. In response to this new environment, corporations should have a tax planning policy that is discussed and signed off by their boards and which they are prepared to discuss in public.

Watch this panel discussion to learn more about global trends and developments in tax policy and tax avoidance.